Day five was my favorite day of the trip. We all piled into a pickup truck and drove to the bottom of a mountain. The ride was bumpy– sometimes we would get stuck on rocks but our driver, Marvin, never failed to get us over them. When we reached the end of the road we crossed a creek in order to get to the base of the mountain. After the hike up we arrived at Loma Panda, a ceramic group run by four sisters and one daughter. The old ladies were full of charachter. We sat as they told us stories. Their family had been in that same location for over 300 years. It was hard to tell the age of the lady we were talking to– she could be anywhere from low 50’s to upper 60’s. She explained to us how her grandfather’s grandfather (more…)

I woke up after a night of sleep that confused me. It was one of those nights in which dreams and realities were blurred into one single string of memory. Santa Rosa was a beautiful place–not only physically beautiful. There was a sense of beauty that radiated within and around the people. Being a socialist commune there is understanding and equality throughout all of the people. After eating a delicious fruit breakfast we made the hike to go dig clay. A lady explained to us that she knew there was clay in the forest because of the cracked ground. After carrying bags of clay back to the house we all piled up in our van and drove to their studio. As soon as we (more…)